Schierke
Schierke (シールケ Shīruke) is a young 'witch-in-training', and was once a disciple of the witch Flora. She is a member of Guts' New Party. Appearance Schierke has dark green hair and is slim and small in stature, standing at roughly the same height as Isidro. Her regular attire consists of a robe and a typical witches hat- both purple in coloration. Although these items of clothing cause her to stand out in a crowd, she prefers them over anything else due to the fact that they were hand-made and given to her by her mistress, Flora, and serve as a memento of her. Shierke has also stated that she peforms her magic best when wearing her witch garbs. She is accompanied by an Elf Ivalera who usually sits atop her hat. Personality Schierke is mature for her age, quiet and withdrawn. She gets along well with most of Guts' party as well as total strangers such a Sonia and Isma. As a result of being rather sheltered throughout her childhood, she is disdainful of the Human world and the Holy See's religion, but finds life outside of the forest bearable due to her companions. Although kind and usually friendly, she sees Isidro as an incompetent monkey and regularly mocks his intelligence, causing some friction between the two- which frequently lends itself to comical situations. Initially, Schierke held a disliking for Guts but this was largely due to her not understanding what kind of man he was. She has since developed an infatuation with him akin to a schoolgirl crush, although their relationship more closely resembles that of a father and daughter. This was shown when she tries on normal clothes and but has them sullied by a drunk person. Guts punishes them for "dirtying his girl's new clothes".. When Sonia extended an offer to join the Neo Band of the Hawk, Schierke thought of Guts before declining. Their journey together constantly brings them into ever deeper understanding. Schierke is the only person to have consistently succeeded in bringing Guts out of the berserker trance induced by the Berserker Armour, but she herself notes that the danger and difficulty of achieving this will undoubtedly increase should Guts continue to rely on it. When Roderick asked Guts if Casca was his woman, Schierke heard the answer and felt uneasy about it due to her infatuation with Guts; but stated that it was fine as she has something with him that no-one else does, referring to how she is the only one with the ability to keep him sane under the influence of the Berserker Armor. History Abilities Witchcraft Equipment Trivia *Before the release of volume 27, her name was often translated as Silke. *Schierke (derived from a word in local dialect meaning ‘unspoilt wood’ ) is the name of a village located in the Harz Mountain range of Northern Germany. In present day it is part of the state of Saxony-Anhalt and is now considered part of the town of Wernigerode. Schierke lies below the highest mountain in the region, the Brocken, which for uncounted centuries has been connected to legends and fairy tales concerning witches, devils and other supernatural beings. The summit of the Brocken is held as the traditional place of revelry for witches on Walpurgisnacht (April 30) (Notably this was used in a scene of Faust by Goethe) Modern-day Schierke is host to a festival every year on Walpurgisnacht. *Schierke is also essentially a homonymn of Circe, a famous witch from Ancient Greek mythology who was involved in a number of well-known epic tales, most notably The Oddysey. Given that both characters are witches, it is likely that the name is a reference. *The NPC character Witch Beatrice from the PS3 game Dark Souls seems to have been inspired by Schierke. Both characters are witches, don similar clothing, and carry around a staff. While Beatrice is a grown woman in the game, the game files also have a model of her as a child around the age of Schierke, suggesting that she may have originally meant to be a small child in the game. She is also similar to Karla the Witch from Dark Souls III. *Her chants are actual Hermetic incantations of the various Kabalistic names of God. Some of her rituals are similar to those in Modern Magick by Donald Michael Kraig. Category:Humans Category:Female Category:Children Category:Witches Category:Guts' New Party